What were the differences between Stalin and Lenin?
Lenin was a revolutionary who believed in Marxism whole heartedly and understood the social principles behind it. He applied communism to Russia, proper social communism, where the working classes took over the running of the country and the country’s industry to make sure everyone was treated equal, essentially to get rid of the class system. He harnesses the power of the working classes and created a state where everyone worked for each other and not for themselves or a particular person. Stalin took over Russia and began to run the communist state as a fascist state, where he controlled everything and everyone worked for him. (There is not a great deal between communism and fascist as totalitarian states.) Stalin kept the people poor whilst he grew rich. Whilst many will call Stalin’s Russia, communist, it was far from it and very removed from the original ideals of Marxism. If you want a social overview of what happened read Animal Farm by George Orwell. In short, Lenin was a Marxi
